Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The bluebells sway daintily in the cool spring air, brushed by the same wind dragging pale petals to drift aimlessly from cherry trees. Tommy is finally finishing planting his strawberry plants for the spring, giving his early-summer bearing varieties just enough time to mature before the first crop. His raspberries and other bushes from last summer are starting to grow back, and the shoots for his rhubarb and chives sprouted weeks ago, leading to sizable plants already- early in the season. Glass tinkles gently, the breeze nudging at his windchimes dangling from the branches of his fruit trees.

The blond wipes his dirt-covered hands on his knees, leaving tawny streaks behind on his skin. He has to check on his wildflower patch before the rain comes in a couple hours, and it’s a good ten minute walk through the woods from his orderly food-bearing garden- he’s going to set off right after he finishes putting the diatomaceous earth down to ensure maximum de-slugginess for his strawberry plants, which are… well known in the gardening community for attracting pests.

He makes sure his mask is on properly before opening the package- even food-grade diatomaceous earth wasn’t great to inhale, but it was the best non-toxic pest repellent that he’d been able to find. The plants are gently watered before being dusted with the pale powder, especially the soil around the base of the plant. The process goes quickly, and Tommy is able to tape the package back up WITHOUT getting his fingertips caught this time, which was really great. He slides his hands out of the gloves and pulls off his mask, making a small pile of the things he wants to take into the woods with him.

The wind blows the tops of the trees around, creating ever-shifting dappled patterns with the light streaming through the foliage. Tommy examines the woods around him, noting the new season shrubs beginning to stretch their branches to the sky and the new grass poking through the winter’s carpet of dead leaves. There’s a few animals out, mostly squirrels and small songbirds with the occasional bold deer or fox, the scurrying and chirping filling the air.

The blond is shocked when he finally gets to his wildflower patch. The small field is covered in flowers, hardly an inch of open ground left available. Flowers grow up to his waist, some of the tallest ones even up to his shoulders, the patch unusually thick for the time of spring. He carefully pushes his way into the wild garden, peering and poking around at the tall stalks and thatches of grass. The soil beneath his feet is hidden under the densely packed plants, nearly fully concealed to the point that he can barely see the slightest hint of his own foot. A cool tingle runs down his back a few more steps in, making his hair stand on end. He continues on, pushing through the wildflower patch until a small patch of ground becomes visible. A single chocolate brown mushroom sits innocently in the center.

“Hello there,” a smooth voice lilts.

Tommy whips around, his heart dropping into his stomach. His blood turns to ice at the sight that greets him.

A willowy figure with brown curls and pointed ears watches him, its golden eyes piercing through him even from where they’re obscured beneath circular glasses. The emerald earring dangling from the fae’s ear catches the light when it tilts its head at him. The blond stares in shock, heart pounding in his chest after its momentary pause.

“It’s impolite to not return a greeting,” it says.

“Hello,” Tommy whispers, willing his voice not to tremble. It doesn’t work.

“You’re young,” it remarks, raising an eyebrow. “What’s a little mortal boy doing walking in the woods all alone?”

“I’m sorry,” he replies, taking a step back. “I’m sorry if I offended you, I- it wasn’t my intention. I’ll- I’ll leave and avoid this part of the woods now if that’s what you want-”

“Well you can’t just leave!” it exclaims. “You stepped in my circle. That means you have to make a deal with me before you’re allowed to step out.”

“Wh- seriously?” Tommy demands. “I didn’t even know the circle was here, I couldn’t see it through the flowers, is there no loophole or anything for that?”

“Don’t forget your manners,” the fae sings. The blond clenches his jaw.

“I apologize for my rudeness,” he grits out. “What kind of deal do you have in mind?”

The fae studies him for a moment, golden eyes crawling across his skin.

“You know, I think you’re right,” it says. Confusion punches its way to replace the dread in Tommy’s chest.

“What?”

“It’s… unfair of me to force you into a strong deal that only benefits me when you couldn’t see the circle. I’ll offer you something to let you off easy.”

“Okay,” the blond says cautiously.

“First, allow me to introduce myself. You may call me Soot, can I have your name?”

“No,” Tommy says flatly. “You may call me…” He panics in his head. Was giving the fae a nickname from his real name okay? He can’t think of any other names right now. What about giving it his full name since he identifies more with Tommy, so that would be more like his true name.

“You may call me Thomas,” he decides. The fae smiles.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Thomas,” it says. “Now this is the deal I’ll offer to you. I’ll let you go off and do whatever you want around here, as long as you’re respectful and you acknowledge that this is wild land and therefore is my land. Do you understand?”

“... that’s it?” Tommy asks. “You’re a fae, there has to be a catch here.” The fae just tilts its head and smiles politely.

“The catch is that you have to acknowledge that this land is mine. That’s all, just because I can’t let you step out without making some sort of deal or agreement.” The boy eyes ‘Soot’ suspiciously, turning the offer over in his head. Just… saying that the wild land was Soot’s land because he was a form of nature spirit?

“Okay,” Tommy acquiesces. “We have a deal.” The fae lights up. “I… acknowledge that this land is yours as a fae in order to leave your circle.”

“Wonderful! You’re free to go now.” Relief floods through the blond’s body, tension leaving his muscles as he hurriedly steps over the small mushroom that had started the whole ordeal.

He rushes away too quickly to see the fae’s beaming smile fall to a sly, calculating expression as it watches him leave.

Chapter Text

In the weeks following his encounter with Soot, Tommy is a lot more cautious and hesitant while exploring the land his garden sits on. He hasn’t been back to the flower patch since then and he really doesn’t plan on going to visit it anytime soon… or really at all, ever again. No new faerie circles have popped up anywhere and nothing really has happened, other than some of his plants growing more vigorously and producing a bit earlier than usual.

It’s early in a balmy evening when he decides to go check on his fruit garden, basket in hand. The sun hovers over the horizon, casting long shadows as the orange of the sunset gently begins to blush the sky, the wispy clouds taking on a faint red hue. The bushes are overflowing with berries, likely due to Soot’s influence, but there’s a downside to the fae’s magic as well- weeds have sprouted up through almost every inch of soil not already occupied by Tommy’s tamed plants. The blond’s compost pile just keeps expanding dramatically, fueled by all the little nutrient suckers he pulls up every day. Maybe he’ll start selling it in addition to the produce he doesn’t need for himself, he’d make an absolute killing at this point.

The most important thing he’d come here for rests on the ground next to his water bottle. There was a particular breed of melon that had been selling really well over the past few weeks and was becoming a “trendy” food item in the area. A shopkeeper who always set up a stall during the Sunday market had some of the seeds in stock and had sold them to Tommy for a fairly low price, handing over a thick packet for only a handful of coins.

The blond picks a few more cherries from their tree, rolling them from his palm into the basket before moving to his strawberry patch. He’s just starting to pick the crop from the short, bushy plants when he hears a dry rustling sound, turning to find the source.

A small fox holds the precious package in its mouth, freezing when he makes eye contact. The air goes completely still.

“Hey,” Tommy whispers. He takes a single, creeping step forward.

The fox takes off.

“Fuck!” He exclaims, breaking into a sprint after the fox. He knows he’s probably not going to actually catch the fox, but if he can at least keep the fox in his sight he might be able to pick up the seed packet if the fox drops it.

The gnarled roots at the fringes of the forest trip him up, barely keeping his balance as he stumbles and nearly falls over the twisted bark. A bolt of scarlet darts further into the shrubbery, leading the boy deeper and deeper into the woods in his desperation to get the rare seeds back. He tramples over twigs and small plants, hardly looking at the ground to avoid the plants as he tries to catch the fox.

A solid force suddenly shoves him back. A frown crosses his face as he extends his hands, gently pushing at the invisible wall in front of him. There’s… nothing there. No shimmer to the air, no ripples, just hard air pressing back against his palms.

“Bruh.”

Tommy’s heart drops out of his chest and as he whirls around. The pink-haired fae behind him stands with its arms crossed, red eyes watching him impassively. The blond takes a shaky breath and slowly glances down to his feet, dread swelling beneath his ribs at the dainty death cap mushrooms, following the line around as it circles him and the fae.

“I- I’m sorry,” Tommy stammers, leaning against the magic barrier. “I didn’t mean to- to step in here or disrespect you or anything. I was just trying to get my seeds back from a fox.” The fae raises a single eyebrow.

“All this for some seeds?”

“They’re very important seeds,” the boy says. “I was lucky to get my hands on them.”

“Guess that luck ran out,” the fae says. “Now you have to make a deal with me.”

“Yeah, I- I figured.” Silence lulls the choppy conversation.

“Well, what’s your name?” The fae asks.

“You may call me Thomas,” Tommy replies.

“Thomas,” the creature muses. “You wouldn’t happen to be the same human my brother met, would you?”

“Soot?”

“Brown hair, glasses, looks like a twig?”

“Uh, yeah. He;s your brother?” The fae huffs out a faint laugh.

“Regrettably. You may call me Techno.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Techno.”

“... You as well,” Techno says dryly. “Now, for the deal… since my brother just hasn’t shut up about you since he first met you, I think that’ll be a part of it.”

Tommy listens in anxious silence. Nausea starts to crawl up his throat.

“I’ll let you out of my circle and promise not to harm you in exchange for you coming to visit… Soot and I- let’s say once every human week. If you allow us to set a circle up closer to your farm or garden or whatever I’ll even throw in that packet of seeds you were chasing after as a benefit to you in the deal. Sound alright?”

“How close is closer?” The blond asks.

“We- I was thinking somewhere along the edge of the woods, close enough that you wouldn’t have to really travel a path to get to us but far enough that we wouldn’t be… interrupting you during your normal routine.”

Tommy turns the offer over in his head. Just like last time, he doesn’t really have much of a choice in the matter- it’s not a bad deal, it’s just one that he’s being forced to make. Visiting the fae brothers once a week for an unspecified amount of time in exchange for his seeds and being allowed to leave was… almost suspiciously nice. He relents anyway.

“Fine. We have a deal, I will visit you once per human week at a circle you set up near my garden in exchange for my seeds taken by the fox and being allowed to leave your current circle.” The blond watches as a faintly smug satisfied look enters the fae’s eyes, darting out of the circle as soon as it waves a dismissive hand at him.

“See you in a week,” it says, vanishing before his eyes. Tommy closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths to calm his heart where it flutters beneath his ribs before starting on his way back home.

—

The first week goes by quickly. Tommy had found the faerie circle near the fringes of the shrubbery lining his entrance to the forest the day after first meeting the pink-haired fae, marking the parts of the circle closest to his usual path to avoid accidentally stepping in it. It’s larger than the previous two he’d been in, ringed with the same death caps as Techno’s previous circle.

Tendrils of color reach across the sky, the setting sun casting golden shadows across the landscape. The young gardener lays out a blanket, planning on taking a short nap before the fae arrives- he’s had a long day! The garden has only been producing more and more, growing wildly beyond its bounds and creating mountains of work for him. He lays down on the soft fabric, stretching out and relaxing under the soft rays of light. Songbirds chirp cheerily, gently lulling him into a tranquil sleep.

Muted whispers drag him out of his rest, the hushed voices growing in volume as they begin arguing.

“I haven’t actually seen him in weeks Techno, can we please just wake him up already?”

“You were just talking about how adorable he is when he’s asleep, Soot- dumbest name I’ve ever heard, by the way. Let him rest, you’re the reason he’s so tired anyway.”

“He’s a gardener Techno, I’m sure he can handle taking care of his garden. His plants are doing really well.” The annoyed sigh that comes after is what really pulls Tommy into awareness. He lifts his head up to gaze at the faerie ring, which now holds two familiar figures.

“Look, he’s awake now anyway!” The brown-haired fae says, pointing at the bleary blond.

“W- Soot,” Techno says warningly, fixing his brother with a stern glare. “Stop.”

“What’s he doing here?” Tommy mumbles, wiping sleep from his eyes. The pink-haired fae sighs again, its irritation clear.

“This fool wouldn’t let me come visit you without him, insisting that he wanted to see the gardener taking such good care of his land.”

“I mean, I don’t really go into the forest a lot so I’m not really caring for it or anything,” the boy replies, finally sitting up to face the two fae properly. Soot waves his hand, easily dismissing Tommy’s words.

“You may not care for the wild plants, but you do prevent them from being destroyed and allow them to flourish- that’s all I need.”

Tommy shrugs at Soot’s response. If the fae just wants him to keep people out of the forest and let it run wild, he’s more than happy to. It’s pretty easy.

“Anyways,” Techno says, dragging Soot backwards by the brown-haired fae’s sweater. “It’s nice to see you again, Thomas.”

“Yeah, it’s been a nice visit,” Tommy says, moving to fold the blanket back up. The fae stare blankly at him.

“...What?” Soot asks.

“I said it’s been a nice visit,” Tommy replies.

“You’re leaving already?”

“Well, yeah.” The blond looks up at them from where he’s kneeling on the ground. “Techno and I’s deal only said I had to visit him once every human week. No time requirement was set, so I visited and now I can leave.” He stands up, tossing the folded blanket over his shoulder. “See you guys next week!”

His heart beats quickly with nerves as he walks away, but neither of the fae try to stop him. He can faintly hear them arguing behind him, Soot insisting that Techno made a bad deal while Techno defends himself. Techno might also be saying something about names, Tommy’s not sure. The next time he goes to look over his shoulder, both figures are gone.

–

Tommy roots around his tool shed, harsh with frustration.

“Where the fuck did my trowel go?” He grumbles, shoving another bin of firewood out of his way. Ever since his little meeting with Techno and Soot, things around his garden and house have been randomly going missing. First it was the bone meal powder for his vegetable garden, then it was his favorite watering can, and now his trowel. He’s absolutely sure that he didn’t give either of them permission to come into his garden or his house, but there’s no way he’s been misplacing so many things in such a short period of time, especially stuff he uses all the time. If he doesn’t find his trowel soon, he’s just going to have to settle for his smaller spade.

He ended up having to use his smaller spade. He’s also down a pair of gloves now, seeing as the ones he’d set next to his strawberry plants last night are gone too. The chickens are doing a pretty good job of soothing his bad mood though, Hetta especially. She’s pecking at the feed he’d put down for them, letting him gently run his hands over her silky feathers. The other hens strut around the yard, glad to be let out of the coop they’d been in for most of the winter. It’s still fairly early in the spring, but that fact wasn’t apparent from the state of his land. The grass is growing thick and lush, the deep green dotted with small pops of color from the dandelions poking through. His gardens have produced as much crop just over the past week as they normally would in a month, meaning that he’s been trying to finish setting up some sort of stall or market to sell what he doesn’t need.

Tommy finally stands after a few more minutes of petting Hetta, picking up the soft lined basket he’d filled with eggs from the coop. It’s about time for him to go make himself dinner before making his evening rounds of the gardens, picking even more fresh produce and pruning back whatever wild growth that threatens to choke off the other plants.

The grass outside his house being taller than it was that morning doesn’t alarm him. It’s been happening all over the place since he first met Soot, so it’s not particularly surprising that the phenomenon was starting to creep up closer to his house. The boy pushes the back door open and steps inside, beelining to the kitchen after toeing his muddy shoes off.

Tommy stops dead in his tracks. There’s someone standing in his kitchen, with shoulder length blond hair and pointed ears. He carefully steps into the kitchen as if avoiding a pressure plate, grip tightening on his basket of eggs. The fae turns towards him, a bright smile coming across its face.

“Hello,” it greets. “Are you Thomas?”

“I am,” he replies cautiously. “May I ask who you are?” His question is met with a light chuckle.

“You may. You can call me Phil, and I’m Soot and Techno’s father.”

Fuck. Tommy never should have gotten involved with the fae, he’s had nothing but trouble since then- first his garden goes insane, then he has to meet the tricksters regularly, and now he’s got their ancient dad here too. Great.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Tommy says flatly. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, I just wanted to meet you. My boys talk about you all the time, they seem to be quite intrigued by you.” Tommy sets the eggs on the counter, giving the fae a wide berth as it moves around the kitchen with him.

“That’s nice. Can you tell your boys that I’d like my gloves back? And my bone meal, my trowel, my watering can, and anything else they’ve taken and I haven’t noticed yet.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I didn’t give them permission to come into my house or my garden and take my stuff, and it was pretty rude of them to do so,” the boy says heatedly.

“Mmm… well I’d say you did give them permission. This is Soot’s land, after all.”

“What? What are you talking about? The woods and stuff are the wild lands that belong to him, that’s what the deal was.”

“Was that… specified?” Tommy scoffs.

“No, it wasn’t specified, because I figured that my land wasn’t even being considered for the deal.” Phil tilts his head curiously.

“Do you know the story of this area, Thomas? How the different plots of land came to be?” Tommy’s brow furrows into a deep frown.

“...No, nobody ever told me anything about it when I moved here.” The fae pulls out a seat from the island counter and sits down, resting its elbows on the marble slab.

“Well… there’s a bit to get through, so you’ll probably want to take a seat.” The boy lowers himself down into a chair on the other side of the island, curiosity and dread mingling in his stomach. Phil sighs.

“This land belonged to the faerie courts for a very long time,” he begins. “Somewhere around- three hundred, three hundred fifty years ago or so? Humans started coming onto our land and… disturbing it, destroying it. Obviously, we weren’t happy about that. They wanted the land anyway, but didn’t want to risk any kind of war. We offered them deals instead, they could have plots of land in exchange for things like still being able to visit from time to time and the occasional firstborn child. As the years have gone by, the generations who really remembered and ascribed to those deals all left and only tales are left- for us, there’s no point to demanding what we’re ‘owed’ from the deal and we’ve just started reclaiming the parts of the land that aren’t used anymore.

This applies to you because this plot of land that your house and garden are on were never given to humans through a deal. It all still belongs to the faerie courts, more specifically Soot after the deal you made with him.”

Tommy can only stare at Phil, wide eyes fixed to the fae’s at he sits frozen trying to process what he’s just been told.

“Soot doesn’t need your permission to come here and take things. Everything here is already his.” The young blond lets out a shaky breath.

“Well… I’d still like those things back to use, they’re very important for me to be able to properly care for the land.”

The ancient fae leans back in his chair, a sly smile spreading across his face.

“Well, what will you give me in return?”

—

Tommy never should have gotten involved with the fae. He’d just made another awful deal, he’s absolutely sure of it. The fae had always managed to rope him into more than he thought they had, so he’s positive that agreeing to meet them during the full moon in the same wildflower patch he’d first run into Soot at was a bad idea.

Now Tommy has had two days to prepare for whatever the three fae might have in store for him, managing to get his hands on an iron knife, some iron nails, and a few stakes of rowan wood. He’s really not sure how much the items would do in his hands specifically, especially against Techno (the guy is huge), but it makes him feel… marginally safer. The downside is that the fae also probably know that he has a few things to defend himself, considering that they can just fucking come and go as they please.

A cool breeze caresses his face as he walks along the path to the flower patch, nails clinking in his pockets. The worn dirt trail is pleasantly illuminated by the bright washes of light reflected from the moon, the air also nicely chilled after a long, warm day under the sun. Tommy can’t help but feel as though he’s marching to his doom- there are almost no animals out tonight, the forest unusually silent with the only sound coming from the wind through the leaves.

He finally comes up on the wildflower patch, the plants growing even thicker than the last time he’d seen it. The field is empty, the three fae nowhere in sight. Tommy’s not sure if he really wants to try going in considering what happened last time, but he’s also not sure when they had wanted him to show up other than simply “the night of the full moon.”

Oh, prime. They hadn’t specified which full moon. They could have meant literally any full moon to happen for the rest of his life and made him look like a fool coming here tonight, then gotten him for reneging on a deal later on when he didn’t show up for the right one- unless he just lives here until he dies and comes here every full moon, that is. He really doesn’t want to do that.

Something brushes over his ankle. At some point during his panicked spiral, he’d stepped just out from under the cover of the trees, barely onto the grass thinly bordering and containing the colorful vegetation. He looks down to see a small woody tree root slowly curling itself around his leg, wrapping to hold him in place. His heart stops for a moment, watching in horror as the plants beneath his feet begin to come alive and move with faerie magic.

He jerks his head up, frantically scanning the field for any sign of the three fae he’d met, his heart racing after its momentary pause. There’s still no figures standing or even crouching that he can see-

Wait.

Tommy flicks his gaze back over to the right side of the field, making direct contact with a pair of glowing golden eyes, slanted with dark excitement. His breath catches in his chest, standing frozen until the snap of a twig breaks him from his reverie and he takes off running.

He wishes so badly that he was just being paranoid. Being paranoid and running through the woods would be so much better than running through the woods like he is now, hearing whoever is behind him shoving through the brush and snapping small branches as they dash after him. The forest literally reaches out to him, the vines and trees unwinding from each other and snagging his clothes and feet, trying to trip him up.

A loud crack sounds from his left. Tommy knows the sharp sound of large tree limbs snapping from the many winter ice storms he’d been through, and that sounded a lot like one. A violent rustling follows from the same area. He dares a glance over, another burst of adrenaline rushing through his veins at the sight of a large hand tipped with long, sharp nails pushing through a bush to dig into a thick oak trunk.

He narrowly dodges past a particularly fast vine, nearly slipping on the dead leaves that still cover the ground as it lashes out at him. Would any of the iron he has with him be able to stop the plants themselves? If he stabbed a nail into a tree, would that “release” the fae magic from controlling it?

Wings whoosh in the sky above him, dark shadows blotting out the moonlight. There had been no birds on his way here, and there were certainly no birds that big in the woods. He grabs at his pockets, nearly shoving a nail through his own hand as he tries to pull it out. He doesn’t dare draw the knife, it’s almost guaranteed that he would end up accidentally stabbing himself or something like that. The footsteps are getting closer- aren’t fae supposed to be these super strong and fast inhuman creatures? They must be toying with him.

“Thomas,” an otherworldly voice intones, the word floating around in the air like silky ribbons. Violent chills wrack his spine. “Thomas, there’s no need to run.” Yeah, right. He’s absolutely sure that they’re just chasing him for no reason, trying to catch him just for nothing. They want something, and he’s not trying to stick around and find out what.

He finally trips and falls to the ground, foot catching on a twisted root after avoiding them for so long. The forest is relentless, the vegetation winding thickly around his arms and legs, one over his torso, pinning him to the ground. All the iron nails spill from his pockets into the dirt, the shallow roots of shrubs quickling pulling them deep into the soil. The heavy footsteps that had been pounding off to his left reach him first, Techno’s eyes piercing through him as the pink-haired fae crouches next to him. Soot is the next to arrive, his light, airy gait having been chasing Tommy from behind. The slender fae’s golden eyes are alight with a dark, possessive fire, clearly thrilled at the sight of the human finally being caught.

Phil is the final of the three to arrive, landing next to them and folding his black feathered wings behind him and smiling at Tommy’s horrified, questioning gaze.

“Hello, Thomas. It’s nice to see you again,” the ancient fae says. “How are you tonight?”

“Not great,” Tommy manages to force out between shaky, heaving breaths.

“Well we’re doing quite well,” Soot says, dropping into a kneel beside the restrained human. “It’s a shame you’re not having a good time. Techno?”

The pink-haired fae shifts himself into a more comfortable position, pulling a small satchel out of his pocket and gently cradling the young gardener’s head in his other hand.

“What is that?” Tommy asks frantically. “What’s in the bag?” Soot hushes him, taking over Techno’s position in holding the boy’s head.

“Don’t worry about it Toms, it’s not going to hurt or anything.”

“Not going to- what? That doesn’t make me feel any better, and who said you could use a nickname for me?”

“He said not to worry, Thomas,” Techno says, gripping the boy’s jaw in his hand. “Just open your mouth, it’ll all be okay.”

“Just- STOP!” He unsuccessfully thrashes in the thick vines, trying to rip his head out of the two brothers’ hands.

“You stop,” Soot replies, fingers tightening around Tommy’s skull. Techno readjusts his grip on the blond’s jaw, sharpened nails digging in ever so slightly. Phil’s face comes into Tommy’s view, the eldest fae leaning over the boy from where he stands over them.

“Just open your mouth, Thomas, don’t be difficult,” the ancient fae scolds. Tommy clenches his mouth closed as tightly as he can, pulling an exasperated sigh out of Techno.

“Thomas.” The pink-haired fae adjusts his hand again, pressing on the joints of his jaw and forcing his mouth open, dumping the contents of the satchel inside and quickly shutting the boy’s mouth again, pressing a hand over it to make sure the boy can’t spit whatever it is (feels like some sort of dried flower petals or something?) out. “There,” Techno says, replacing Soot’s hand with his own again. “He doesn’t need to swallow it or anything, it’ll work just sitting in his mouth.”

Tommy’s frantic, panicked noises of protest are muffled beneath Techno’s massive hand. He strains against the confines of the forest where it’s wrapped around him, even as his limbs weaken and his mind begins to fuzz.

“Good,” Phil says softly, gently rubbing a thumb over Tommy’s cheek. “Now, can I have your name?”

“Tommy,” the boy slurs after Techno removes the hand over his mouth. He’s grateful for the hand supporting his head, because the world is spinning so much around him that he’s not sure he’d be able to hold it up himself. “My name is Tommy.”

“Oh, thank you,” Phil murmurs. His eyelids feel so heavy, he can barely open them back up every time he blinks. Faint snickering floats into his ears.

“Look Wil, even he just used a different form of his name instead of just making something dumb like Soot up,” Techno says. The fae sounds like he’s underwater.

“Oh shut up Techno, prime, you’re so-”

“Boys.” Tommy can barely follow the motion of Phil’s mouth as the ancient fae speaks. “That’s enough, we’ve got more important things now.” There’s a few shuffling noises and some jostling as the three fae move around, one pair of arms wrapping under his limp form as all the other hands leave his skin. His head lolls back as he’s lifted and blood rushes to his brain, sending him spiraling into unconsciousness.

—

Tommy wakes up to a head filled with cotton and a mouth that feels like he’s been eating sawdust. He’s being held in a pair of large, muscular arms, head tilted back to look up at the night sky.

“Wh—?”

“Good morning, Tommy,” a familiar but unwelcome voice says. He lifts his head up to see Phil looking at him from where the fae is reclined back, propped up on his hands. Soot is over to Tommy’s left, golden eyes still glowing, just far less harshly. The boy is being held by Techno, who peers down at him with impassive red eyes. Tommy looks to his surroundings- he’s back in the flower field, only this time the plants have been flattened so he can see the enormous faerie circle the four of them are sitting inside of. His- his knife isn’t with him anymore. They must have taken it off before carrying him here.

“What the fuck?” He blurts out, trying to drag himself out of Techno’s arms. The fae’s grip only tightens more the harder he pulls against it. “You can’t just drag me into a faerie circle, that’s not how this works!” Phil smiles.

“Well, perhaps you should have listened to the wording of our deal more closely, Tommy. I’m surprised you didn’t learn after your deal with Wilbur.”

“Who the fuck is Wilbur?”

“Mmm…” Phil hums. “I suppose we should all introduce ourselves now, especially since we have your name now.”

“You don’t have my name, I never gave it to you,” Tommy says slowly, cautiously.

“Think hard, Toms,” Soot says. “What can you remember?”

The boy lays in Techno’s arms, brow furrowed as he wracks his brain to figure out what they might be talking about. Cold dread rushes through his body as blurry memories begin to surface.

“You drugged me,” he yells. “There’s no way that counts, I didn’t actually intend to give you my name, you can’t have it!”

“The fae don’t ascribe to human norms,” Phil states. “It doesn’t matter if you were fully lucid or not, I asked for possession of your name and you gave it to me, so now it’s mine.”

Tommy stares in horrified disbelief, flipping through so many emotions he almost doesn’t feel anything at all anymore.

“I’ll go over the wording of our deal after we all introduce ourselves,” the blond fae says. “My name is Philza, but you may still call me Phil.”

“My name is Wilbur,” Soot says. “You can call me Wil if you want to.”

“Technoblade,” Techno grunts, apparently unwilling to give any other information. Silence fills the lull in conversation.

“Wow,” Tommy utters. “Soot was a dumb name.”

“Hey-!”

“Anyways,” Phil interrupts. “Our deal. The exact wording was that you should come into the wildflower patch where you first met Wilbur and see us. Look around. The circle takes up the entire field, so had you entered the field before seeing Wil, you would have been trapped anyway. You were always going to be here with us.” The fae takes a deep breath before continuing.

“You also have nothing left to offer us. You already gave up ‘your land’, you’ve given us access to your tools, you’re unable to properly care for your garden now that Wilbur is in charge of it, and we left you off very easy the past few times you’ve made deals with us, so you’re essentially in debt to us. The only thing left for us to claim in deals, particularly now that we have your name, is you. You’re ours now, and we’re taking you back home to the faerie realm now. Welcome to the family.”

Tommy never should have gotten involved with the fae.